Have you visited an Illinois sunflower trail yet? Growing in popularity along with sunflower mazes, they have been popping up in recent years across the state on farms that welcome visitors for a fee. For example, Eckert’s Country Store and Farms in southern Illinois started to offer the attraction in 2017.
“It has been a lot of fun,” says Chris Eckert, a St. Clair County farmer who helps run the family farm and agritourism destination. “It’s exciting for us to expose a group of folks who are not normally involved with agriculture or on a farm and get them to come out to see Mother Nature at work.”
Eckert’s has planted up to 2 acres of sunflowers and grows a shorter variety than some agricultural destinations to make them ideal for photos.
See more: Locust Creek Flower Farm: A Blooming Success
If you want to visit this summer, you’ll need to be quick. Sunflower blooms typically reach their peak during a week to 10-day period as early as mid-July. But some farmers plant sunflower trails and mazes in multiple stages so you and other Illinoisans have time to visit farms and enjoy.
PARTNERS | Eckert’s Sunflower Trail from Illinois Agricultural Assoc. on Vimeo.
